Head Of Testing

Project overview

Role Overview

We are seeking an experienced Head of Testing to lead and transform the Testing and Quality Assurance function across enterprise-scale digital transformation programs. The ideal candidate will define the testing strategy, establish governance, drive quality best practices, manage testing teams, and ensure successful delivery of business-critical applications within a complex stakeholder environment.

Responsibilities

Testing Strategy & Leadership

Test Planning & Delivery

Stakeholder Management

Quality Assurance & Governance

Test Automation & Innovation

Required Skills & Experience:

Technical Skills

• Define and implement the overall testing and quality assurance strategy.
• Build and lead high-performing testing teams across multiple programs and projects.
• Establish testing standards, methodologies, governance frameworks, and best practices.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives within the testing function.
• Develop test maturity roadmaps and quality metrics.
• Oversee SIT, UAT, Regression, Performance, Security, and Automation testing activities.
• Ensure comprehensive test planning, execution, defect management, and reporting.
• Manage testing activities across Agile, Waterfall, and Hybrid delivery models.
• Monitor testing progress and provide executive-level reporting on quality and risk.
• Collaborate with Business, Product, Project Management, Architecture, and Development teams.
• Act as the primary point of contact for quality-related governance and testing assurance.
• Manage relationships with third-party vendors, system integrators, and testing partners.
• Present testing outcomes, risks, and recommendations to senior leadership.
• Define quality gates and release readiness criteria.
• Ensure compliance with organizational policies, regulatory requirements, and industry standards.
• Drive defect prevention initiatives and root cause analysis activities.
• Implement and monitor KPIs, SLAs, and quality standards.
• Promote adoption of test automation frameworks and CI/CD practices.
• Evaluate and implement modern testing tools and technologies.
• Drive shift-left, DevOps, and continuous testing practices.
• Explore AI-driven testing and quality engineering opportunities.
• Explicit experience in Utility Industry.
• 12+ years of experience in Software Testing and Quality Assurance.
• 5+ years in Test Management or Testing Leadership roles.
• Proven experience managing enterprise-wide testing programs.
• Strong understanding of:
• Test Strategy & Governance
• Quality Engineering
• Test Automation
• Agile Delivery
• DevOps Practices
• Risk-Based Testing
• Experience managing geographically distributed teams.
• Excellent stakeholder and vendor management skills.
• Strong leadership, communication, and presentation abilities.
• Test Management Tools (JIRA, Azure DevOps, HP ALM, qTest, Zephyr).
• Automation Frameworks (Selenium, Cypress, Playwright, Tosca).
• CI/CD Tools (Azure DevOps, Jenkins, GitHub Actions).
• Performance Testing Tools (LoadRunner, JMeter).
• Cloud Platforms (Azure, AWS, GCP).

Nice to have

If this position is of interest to you, apply now!

• Experience within Financial Services, Utilities, Retail, Telecom, or Public Sector.
• Knowledge of AI-assisted testing approaches.
• Experience leading large-scale digital transformation programmes.

Project details

• Start: flexible
• Remote: hybrid
• Location: Reading, GB